Yeah I wouldn’t say that Hess is less dodgy than other schools. They aren’t dodgy at all in comparison, in a legal sense. I obviously haven’t worked for other schools, so I don’t know. But what I do know is that my boyfriend and several of my friends work at more regional schools which give you weekends off and hire from within Taiwan without deceiving you while you are in your home country, saying you will get this and you will get that when really it depends on the branch you go to. In the end, it’s not about legality but about how the company actually treats its employees. It’s about morality. Is it illegal to tell person one thing before they come and then give them another? No, of course not. But immoral and deceitful, yes. That’s why a lot of people leave, frustrated.

Again, I will say that my actual school branch is awesome, and my coworkers are awesome. But people in Taipei have NO clue what goes on in Kaohsiung, and don’t get that things are different here and everyone works weekends. But everyone’s experience is different. I think in Kaohsiung there are a lot of schools that pay better, give more time off (if wanted) and treat their employees with a bit more respect in the way that they give them what they say they will give them. But for coming here for the first year, I’ll also say that Hess did give me a loan, a lot of support, and some good friends!

I taught in a regular Hess branch in Taipei way back when. I’ve seen it all. All the classrooms in the basement were illegal so a thick board was constructed to cover the stairwell. With a bucket of umbrellas and some boxes on it you would never know there was a basement. Of course, that was just placed there on the day of an inspection.

Another time, the branch covered the sign outside the school to change the name for a week or two. Apparently, every branch of all school franchises has a different name. They are all technically a separate business so you can’t use the same name on the outside, officially. Whether this is done for tax purposes or some other law, I couldn’t tell you.

The thing about claiming that your hourly pay is lower than it is, works in the teacher’s favour – you pay less tax.

I make it sound like Hess is a bit dodgy but they’re no less dodgy than any other school in the land. In fact, they try to play by the rules as much as they can. In general Hess does not screw over its foreign teachers. You only get to hear about the whiners who probably got fired for incompetency and who have never worked for other smaller schools where you are far more likely to get shafted.

How’s it going. I just finished reading your post about the legal/illegal things in Tawain. It’s very interesting. I’m glad to see you’ve adjusted to life in Tawain. I know the first little while is the toughest, because there’s so much you have to adjust to, but you seem to have adjusted nicely.

Thanks for stopping by my blog I’m glad that my blog inspires you from time to time. I’m inspired that you’re living a life immersed in a new culture and trying to teach them about environmental awareness. You are correct when you say that we here in Canada are very lucky to be very aware about the troubles plaguing the environment.

There are times when I find it hard here in Canada to be environmentally friendly, simply because a lot of companies seem to be jumping on the band wagon and adding lines of “green” products to their catalog. It’s hard to tell if these products are really green (especially when there’s no ingredient list on the label).

Anyways, I have a friend who recently flew to Japan and is teaching English there. I told him to read your blog and use it as a guide and now he has his own blog, that he’s going to use to keep his friends/family up-to-date on the things that he’s doing in Japan .

I’m glad to hear that things are going really well for you in Tawain. Keep up the good work and don’t get discouraged about the low awareness about environmental issues. The work you do will trickle across a greater number of people over time

Take care!
-Juancho